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Gregory Wilson's Double Take (DVD)
HOW IN THE WORLD DID YOU DO THAT? You'll hear this and more when you master the double lift - the most vital move in card magic.

Gregory Wilson's Double Take puts the world's greatest double lifts at your fingertips. ..even if you're all thumbs. This step-by-step instructional video is packed with more than 90 minutes of dynamic material you can perform anytime, anywhere, with any deck.

For nearly two decades Gregory has been teaching his unique style of magic, as well as performing for many Fortune 500 companies. And as your personal coach, Gregory will teach you the nuances of more than 25 different double lifts ~ choose your favorites: from the top of the deck, from the bottom, from the middle, from a fan, from the table, to the table, and even doubles that flip through the air from hand-to-hand!

If you're a beginner, or have never even picked up a deck of cards, you can easily perform miracles in minutes with Greg's Quick Start-Up Section. The more advanced will enjoy studying the techniques of the masters, including Dai Vernon, Ed Mario, Martin Nash, and many others.

Included are seven powerful routines:

Phoenix Aces - Produce the four aces from mid-air ... ...really!

Weighted Aces - A variation of the legendary Doc Daley's Last Trick.

Two Wrongs DO Make A Right - A visual stunner that looks like trick cards.

Plus - three more stunners, and a live performance of Greg's own personal Ambitious Card Routine.

Master card magic's most often used move - the double lift. Consider this video a historical artifact of sorts, as it was Gregory Wilson's debut to the world. It's 2 hours of action-packed, non-stop Wilson wiggle!

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on April 2nd, 2010

The Double Lift (DL) is arguably the most widely used sleight in all of card magic. Poorly executed,
you'll look like a complete dufus. Perfectly executed and you look like a wizard. Seemingly a simple
move, the DL is a tough move to polish to perfection and difficult to nail 100% of the time. For
century's, the classic pass was thought to be the most indispensable move but move over pass; the DL
is now the king of cards. This DVD is a timeless masterpiece.

Degree of Difficulty

Beginner to Expert. Wilson puts puts things in order. He assumes you don't even know what a
"mechanics grip" is. He ties the introductory material up with a "quick start" segment providing
three easy to learn miracles. The material gets harder from here on out. You'll find that some moves
and routines have an steep learning curve.

The cool thing is, I really think a beginner
could get this DVD as a starting point. There is no more important move than the DL in card magic.
This will give the beginner an arsenal of hard hitting close-up magic. Then, as the novice advances,
they can work on the more advanced material. Literally, this DVD will take you a long, long time to
learn and perfect all of the material.

And the advanced card mage will love the
Brittanica-like index of DL knowledge as well.

Teaching

Greg Wilson is like a
tenured Harvard professor - only a lot more fun and a lot less boring! Each routine is performed in
front of a small audience of attractive ladies donned in vintage 80s attire. He is constantly
cracking jokes and flirting with the pretty ladies in his audience. During the instructional
sections, Gregory moves slowly through all moves, usually several times in both slow-mo and in
tempo.

Quantity of Effects

Wow! Like Wilson's Ring Leader DVD is to "ring and
string" magic, this is THE encyclopedia of the Double Lift. As if the sleights weren't enough, there
are a bunch of great tricks in this gem. It took me well over an hour to document the sleights and
tricks that contained with this vast grimoire. So here they are:

Introduction - Greg
telling you what he's about to teach you.

Basic DL - Greg does a good job explaining basic
DL beginning with the mechanics of the mechanics grip and the thumb count from the biddle grip. It's
a littler different from the basic DL I learned.
Strike DL - a very popular DL because of the
natural moption and no get ready. Personally, I don't like it because I occasionally get a triple
(Yeah, I know...lack of practice!)
Grip Strike DL - enhanced version of the Strike that adds a
push over move.
Knock-Out DL - Greg's favorite and my fav as well. A litle flashy and always
works for me.
The Basic Replacement - perhaps I wasn't giving this part of the DL enough
attention!
Quick Start-up - three tricks to get your feet wet. These are really good tricks so
don't overlook them. Includes a very nice in-the-spectators-hand transposition.

Maintaining a break after the replacement
Bernard Bilis Replacement - a flourishy
replacement.
Revolve Replacement - flourishy & emphasizes the singularity of of the double
(that's an oxymoron!)
Juan Tameriz Replacement - cool out jogged replacement.
Racherbaumer
Replacement - another cool out jogged replacement.
Vernon Offset Replacement - Yet another
reason why Vernon was a genius. Pick up a double and display it away from the deck in the air for
the crowd. Table it and place the cardbox on top of the tabled card. Guess what? It's already back
in the deck!

Get Readys...

No Brainer DL
Auto DL
Pinky Count DL
Thumb
Count DL

More doubles...

Double from a Fan
DL from a Dribble
Dai Vernon's
DL
Color Changes
DL without a Pack
Tabled DLs

Tricks...

Phoenix Aces
- pluck 4 Aces from the air, one at a time. This is not a back palm production. It uses some
sleights that I was not familiar with.

Weighted Aces - Wilson's version of Doc Daley's Last
Trick. Using 4 aces, demonstrate your ability to tell which ace is which by weight alone. Follow up
with some amazing"in the spectator's hand" transpositions. Very good trick I use all the time.

Two Wrongs Make A Right - Starts out as a pick a card trick. Only problem is that you guess
wrong twice. Take the two wrong cards place face up on the deck. Snap your fingers over the deck and
the correct card appears from thin air, face up on the top of the deck.

Jumping Gemini
(Darwin Ortiz) - Reminds me of the Color Monte on steroids. This is a difficult trick to master. Not
because of the sleights but because there are so many sequences to remember. Miss one sequence and
you're fricked. As a little bonus, Wilson does a great job teaching the Elmsley count.

Ambitious Card Routine

Greg performs his ACR but does provide the explanation. It's a
pretty good routine that ends in a card to card box. If you don't know the ACR I would recommend the
Worlds Greatest Magic by the Worlds Greatest Magicians: The Ambitious Card DVD from L&L Publishing.

An you get bonus tricks!

Bizarre Twist (Paul Harris) - I loved this trick. You
start with 3 red backed cards. You slide a black seven face down between two face down red aces.
Twist the cards apart and the seven is now face up. Do the sequence again and this time when you
flip the seven over it is a blue backed card.

Stop Trick - Drop a face down on the table.
To the side, deal the remaining cards onto the table and ask the spectator to say stop. Drop the
stop card onto the first tabled card. Flip them over and they are both red aces.

Double
Monte - Two red aces and a black queen. You show the black queen and table it face down. You then
show that you have two red aces in your hand. A quick spin and the two red aces become one black
queen. You flip the tabled card over and it is the two red aces.

This is a resource that
you will use for years to come. The tricks alone would make a solid DVD. If you need a resource to
determine the best DL for you, this is going to fit the bill. Sure, there may be some lessor known
DLs that are not covered here but there is sure to be a few that you'll come to cherish.

The DL is one of, if not the most commonly used sleight in card magic. Despite this, many magicians
do not perform the move well at all. Greg goes in-depth into several types of DL, so you can find
which works best for you. He also teaches some wonderful effects that utilize the move. If you're
familiar with any of Gregory Wilson's other material, you know that everything he puts out is
quality. Definitely recommended.

There are already DVDs available about the pass and the force. The the third slight - and maybe the
last one - that deserves an entire DVD all by itself would probably be the Double Lift. A bit hard
to find on this site and not the newest video or the flashiest one for that matter DOUBLE TAKE by
George Wilson is for some reason the best teaching video I have ever seen. Because Wilson is the
only one that does not just mention subtleties, but emphasizes them, REALLY teaches them. You will
really get this sucker of a slight down, with lots of practice, but at least someone will show you
all aspects of perfoming the double lift well. You will be excited.

Wilson is funny and
entertaining. He includes several routines, some real easy, some extremely tough. Out of all card
magic DVDS here I would buy BTP (though it lacks in scope), showoff with cards, Gerry Griffins
Complete card magic....all of which will also help the beginner tremendously, and CERTAINLY this
one. I always thought they brainwash people to say add to cart at the end of the review, but...ADD
TO CART NOW!

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on July 12th, 2005

This DVD is an exciting way to explore the tricky world of the double lift. Typically, books and
videos offer the double lift, but there are many different kinds of lifts. Daryl's outstanding
Ambitious Card DVD, for example, offers the 'snap double,' but I don't really like it (I have
difficulty doing it, and, besides, cards don't snap BEFORE you lift them!). Greg offers several
different double lifts, and I was able to try them all and compare them until I found what was
comfortable for ME.

Greg also demonstrates several routines, all of which are good but
not great. His teaching style is clear and helpful, and his sense of humor makes learning easier
and less stressful.

I give it four stars instead of five only because the routines could
have been better and more challenging, and there weren't many of them. Plus, it's obviously a DVD
version of an older video with a linear format, when learning a double lift is anything but linear.

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on September 20th, 2005

I ordered Jay Sankeys Earplugs, Sankeys Anytime Anywhere, Born to Perform and Gregory Wilsons
Double Take. I was so hyped about the other tapes that I put it off to the side. When I did pop in
this DVD I was blown away. I was expecting some boring guy reviewing double lifts but was I wrong.
First he's funny, keeps you interested. Second not only does he show you dl's, he shows you
(briefly) how to palm cards, get ready's, he even teaches a double undercut. This has become my
favorite DVD.

Before buying this DVD, I obviously knew what a double lift was and was relatively confident with
executing one. I bought this DVD with the expectation that I could learn a few tips to improve a
standard double lift. However, Greg Wilson goes beyond what I had hoped for and not only gave me
plenty of tips for executing double lifts, but also taught 30 of them. If you are trying to find
the double lift that is perfect for you, chances are its on this DVD. I highly recommend this for
anyone wanting to learn a double lift, improve their own double lift, or find the double lift
perfect for their magic style.

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on May 1st, 2006

The double lift is the most vital move in all of card magic. If you can do this move perfectly,
along with a few clever handlings, you will be able to perform miracles. Greg teaches many doubles,
my favorite is the knock-out double lift, I now do this one and the one from BTP all the time(by the
way, Born to Perform teaches one that is very simple and good, I use it and knockout alot.) The DVD
also teaches many great replacements, and gives many tips to make your double perfect. The routines
are very good, Jumping Gemini, Pheonix Aces or great. There are also some color changes taught, my
fav is the paint brush change. Did I mention that Greg is a funny guy, that keeps you interested.
Sure the quality isn't great, but the material sure is. If u are a beginner, get this, along with
Born to Perform by Oz Pearlman and maybe Color Changes by Noblezada, and you will look like a pro.